Preparing for adulthood

Preparing for adulthood used to be called ‘transition’. In social care, this means the time when a young person moves from using children’s social care services to having an assessment in adult services and potential support from Adult Social Care.

What support is available?

Coventry City Council has an All Age Disability Service. An element of the work of the service involves supporting people with transition and has social workers and community case workers who provide assessment, planning, advice and support services for young people preparing for adulthood.

They work with young people who have disabilities and require social care support that cannot be accessed through community services already in place.

They can work with people whether they have received services from children’s social care or not.

The service works with young people to help them be as independent as possible. This might be through community support, short term support, specialised support including support into employment and/or any assistive technology.

Good transition planning should be based on what is important to the young person, their strengths and what they want to achieve so they and their families are prepared for adulthood. The Transitions Service and its partners want to make sure that transition to adulthood is as smooth as possible for the young person and their carers.

Find out more about how we undertake assessments and eligibility for care and support.

Charges

When someone is 18 and has support from adult social care, we will carry out a financial assessment to determine the level of contribution to the cost of their care. This is different from children’s social care where support is free.

Contacting us and making a referral

Any referral should be made to the Council by contacting Adult Social Care Direct. Our advisors will try to help with any concerns and then refer to the appropriate service. Referrals can also be made by anyone including the person’s GP, education, support providers or community services. To access the service young people can be referred from the age of 14. Before they become 18 someone from the Transitions Service will work with them, their family and anyone else involved in supporting them. The service can help them plan how to achieve what they want. The age at which the service starts to work with a young person will depend on their needs.

Download our printable leaflet about preparing for adulthood